


The Authentic Life Chapter 6

by ssa_archivist



Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe, Drama, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-10-13
Updated: 2006-10-13
Packaged: 2017-11-01 09:55:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/355274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ssa_archivist/pseuds/ssa_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jonathan and Martha are shocked to discover that Clark and Lex are more than just legendary friends, and Clark's summer in Metropolis is far from gone and forgotten.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Authentic Life Chapter 6

## The Authentic Life Chapter 6

by Coren Lee

[]()

* * *

The Authentic Life  
By Coren Lee 

Chapter 6 

As soon as they were in the kitchen, Lex pulled Clark into a close embrace and held him tightly. 

"You're doing fine babe, just keep calm, and it will all be OK." 

"It doesn't feel fine Lex, it feels like I've been tried and judged and I'm just waiting for the execution to be carried out." 

Lex gently ran his hand up and down Clark's back, soothing and reassuring him. "I know, I know, but they've had a shock - several shocks in fact - and they just need some time to take it all in." 

"They just don't get it! Without you I would never have survived the last two years, but did you see the look on Mom's face when I said you had my blood? There's nowhere on this planet safer than with you, but she hates that you have it." 

Lex had expected the Kents to be distressed when it came out that he knew Clark's secrets, so their concern about him having the blood was no surprise. If it had been up to him he probably wouldn't have mentioned it, but he knew that Clark did so only because he thought it would reassure his parents. For a highly intelligent being, Clark could sometimes be unbelievably dense. 

"They'll get over it." He tried to sound reassuring, but he could see it wasn't exactly working. "Come on, take this stuff in there. Your Mom always handles things better when there's food on the table." 

That got a smile. 

Lex led the way back into their main room, and placed the trays of prepared food on the table. Clark followed with plates and napkins, and then disappeared into the kitchen again to get some jugs of juice. 

"Mrs Kent, Mr Kent, please, help yourselves." 

He was relieved to see that they appeared to be a little calmer as they chose some food and filled their glasses, and decided that it would probably help things along if he continued with the story at this point. 

"As Clark said, Helen played us both, and I still can't believe we didn't see it coming. We'd known her for some time before I approached her with an offer of money in exchange for marrying me, but I should have known." 

"Lex, she fooled us both, you can't blame yourself." 

"I've been dealing with manipulative women - and men - my entire life Clark, I should have seen it coming." Lex still got a twist in his gut when he thought about it. 

"What happened, Lex?" Martha sounded concerned. 

"Well, you already know all the public stuff. We got engaged, Helen moved into the mansion, we had the rehearsal dinner, and then the wedding. What was kept secret was that Helen and I never had any kind of a relationship apart from a business arrangement. It was all for show, and after the wedding Helen was only going to spend enough time with me at the mansion to make it seem like a real marriage. The idea was that she would then move into a house or apartment that I would set up for her, and receive a very generous allowance for as long as she remained my wife in name." 

"So what went wrong?" 

"What went wrong Mom, is that the fucking bitch betrayed us and tried to murder Lex!" 

"Clark!" 

"No! Don't even ask me to calm down over this, it's all too raw and painful still. I spent months fearing that Lex was dead. I never wanted to believe it, I couldn't make myself accept that I would never see him again, but still, he was gone." Clark stifled a sob. 

"Shush baby, it's OK, I'm here." Lex gripped Clark's hand, and gently wiped away a tear. Out of the corner of his eye he could see the Kents shifting uncomfortably, possibly at Clark's outburst, possibly at his display of affection, but either way, he didn't really care. Clark needed him, and that was all that mattered. 

"Clark also planned to destroy the ship in the storm cellar while everyone was at the wedding, but as you know, that went spectacularly wrong too." 

"I did destroy the ship though; I'd had enough of Jor-El trying to manipulate me, and the final straw was when he demanded that I leave Smallville, and everyone I loved, to join him and carry out whatever plans he had for me. I begged, and pleaded; I told him how much Lex meant to me, but he just kept telling me I had no choice but to leave." 

"Wait, you told _Jor-El_ about your relationship with Lex?" Jonathan sounded more than a little pissed off. "How come you could tell him but not us?!" 

"Does it matter? He didn't care, he just wanted me to fulfil some Kryptonian legacy." 

Lex could see Jonathan building up for an outburst, so he quickly carried on with the story. 

"The idea was that Clark would destroy the ship, get to the wedding, do his Best Man duties, and then go with us to the LuthorCorp jet. I started to get anxious when he didn't show, and I think even Helen was a little perturbed by it. At the time I thought she genuinely cared for Clark and was worried that something had happened to him. Now I realize it was just that she feared it might mean some kind of hitch in her plan. Anyway, we decided to go ahead with the wedding and I hoped that Clark would meet us at the hangar. When there was no sign of him there either and I couldn't get a response on his cell phone I was frantic with worry, but Helen persuaded me to carry on with the pretend honeymoon. We'd planned for Helen to go elsewhere once we arrived at our destination, so I let myself be persuaded that Clark's absence was no more than an unavoidable delay and that he would still meet me at the hotel as planned." 

"What do you mean, meet you at the hotel as planned? Clark never gave us any indication that he would be joining you on your honeymoon! How the hell did you intend to get away with that?!" 

"It's easy Dad, once you go to bed - and you go to bed pretty early - you never know where I am. I don't need sleep like humans do and it only takes me seconds to get anywhere on the globe. I was just going to be with Lex as often as I could without anyone noticing I was gone." 

"Jeezus", muttered Jonathan, shaking his head. 

"I will never forgive myself for letting Helen persuade me to leave without Clark. If I'd listened to my instincts she would never have succeeded, but I just let her manipulate me into doing what she wanted. I still can't believe I let her do it." 

"Hey, it's OK. She tricked us both, you're not to blame." 

"I should have realized something was up," insisted Lex. 

"Hey, it wasn't your fault, OK?" Clark pulled Lex into his arms, gently kissing his temple. 

Lex had almost forgotten the Kents were there, but his attention was brought back to them when Jonathan got up to refill his glass with juice. Lex assumed he was uncomfortable (again) with the display of affection between them, but there was no way he was rejecting Clark's comforting embrace. He drew strength from it in a way he couldn't begin to describe. 

"All we heard about the crash is that the plane went down, Lex, was that what really happened?" asked Martha. 

"More or less, but that story omits the fact that Helen drugged my coffee, and once I was unconscious, she and the pilot sabotaged the plane, taking the only parachutes as they made their escape." 

Martha gasped in shock. "Oh Lex, what a terrible thing to do to anyone, let alone someone you're supposed to care about." 

"Oh she never cared about anyone but herself, there's no doubt about that. Strangely enough though, the fact that she drugged me probably saved my life, because when the plane hit the water I was loose and relaxed, and didn't try to brace myself against anything. That would probably have killed me." 

Clark abruptly stood up. 

"I can't do this. I can't sit here casually discussing this. Lex is my lover, my soul mate, my best friend. I'm sorry, I just can't do it." By the time he finished speaking Clark was halfway out of the room, and seconds later there was a muffled slam of a door closing. 

"Clark Kent, get back here this minute!" shouted Jonathan. 

"Wait, let him go," said Lex. He understood Jonathan's anger, but he was not going to stand by and see his lover harassed. 

"What the... I'm not going to sit patiently waiting here while he has a temper tantrum!" 

"Yes, you are." Lex gave Jonathan a look that gave absolutely no leeway. "And it's not a temper tantrum. You really have no idea how broken up he's been over this. I almost died in that plane crash, but Clark almost died of a broken heart right here in Metropolis." 

"Lex, we had no idea this was happening, you can't blame us for thinking that Clark is just displaying a fit of temper." 

"I don't Mrs Kent, but you also have to understand that Clark isn't over it yet, and it really upsets him to talk about it. He'll deal with it in his own way, but in the meantime you have to give him some space." 

Martha sighed, but nodded her agreement and Lex knew that Jonathan would follow her lead. 

"Let me finish this off quickly before he comes back," said Lex. "The details of my rescue are fairly common knowledge, and accurate as far as it goes. As soon as I was conscious again I got in touch with Clark. He said earlier that he was a complete fuck-- uhh sorry, freaking mess without me, but that's not quite accurate. He was certainly mentally unstable, so in that sense he was a mess, but he channelled his grief into... well, a few different projects, and he achieved an incredible amount in a short space of time." 

"Lex, none of those things he achieved were exactly legal, were they?" 

He gave Martha a considering look, wondering how much she wanted the truth and how much she wanted to be reassured. He decided to give her the truth. 

"Some of them were legal. This club is legal, and he bought his penthouse apartment and cars in the usual way, but you're right, a lot of the things he did were most definitely not legal." 

"Lex, how can this club be legal when Clark isn't even old enough to drink in this State, let alone own an adults-only club?!" 

Damn, Martha was too sharp sometimes. Lex hadn't really wanted to get into this with them, but he didn't have too many options. Fuck, it would have to be the truth again. 

"We had a new birth certificate made up. It confirms I'm 21 years old." Clark walked back into the room looking a lot calmer than he had when he left it. 

"Wait a minute, you said 'we' - how could it be 'we' if you were here on your own?" Martha looked puzzled. 

"We did it almost two years ago, Mom, when we first started our relationship. Even though we kept it a secret, I was scared that someone would find out and Lex would end up being charged with something because I was a minor. So, I stole the adoption papers and Lex arranged for a new birth certificate for me." 

"You STOLE the papers? From us? Dammit Clark, stealing from your own parents? What the hell got into you?" Jonathan glared at Clark, who stared back at him impassively, and then shrugged. 

"We couldn't risk it Dad, we had to have a back up plan just in case." 

"Clark, you do understand that what you did was wrong, don't you?" Martha pleaded. 

"It wasn't wrong," insisted Clark, "what would have been wrong would have been to leave Lex in danger of being arrested if anyone ever discovered us." 

"And it never occurred to you that lying and stealing just so that you and Lex could fuck each other was wrong?!" Jonathan snapped. 

Lex didn't want the discussion to drift into an argument about the rights and wrongs of what they did, so he stepped in and eased things down again. Never had he been more grateful for the years he spent in honing his negotiating skills. Ironic really that Lionel Luthor had provided him with exactly the right training to deal with his male lover's antagonistic father. 

"If our relationship had been no more than sex then perhaps I would agree with you, but it's not. Clark and I fell in love, deeply in love, and when you love someone you do everything in your power to protect that person. Legality and morality become flexible if they get in the way of protecting that person." 

Lex didn't want to be antagonistic, but he was too well-trained to pull any punches in verbal debate, and he decided he might as well go for the kill. "After all, isn't that exactly what you both did when you let Lionel arrange the original false documentation so that you could adopt Clark?" 

The Kents looked profoundly uncomfortable, but said nothing. 

"Apart from which," added Clark, "as I said earlier, you were the ones who taught me to lie about everything, why be surprised that I'm so good at it?" 

"And I suppose lying and stealing is how you got the money to buy this club, your apartment and cars, and everything else you have here?" snapped Jonathan. 

Clark stared back at his Father, eyes cold, expression challenging. 

"I didn't buy this club, it was part payment for some work I did for someone, but otherwise yeah, that's pretty much how I got everything." 

"Part payment Clark? What on earth did you do to earn that sort of money?" 

Lex wasn't sure that Martha was really ready for the answer to that question, but he left it up to Clark to decide what to say. 

"Ironically, it was for stealing my blood from Lionel. Morgan ended up with a vial of blood taken from some homeless guy at the hospital, and I ended up with this club and a nice lump sum of cash that Lex has invested for me." 

Lex shut his eyes and hoped that Clark wasn't grinning like an idiot. He agreed with Clark that it was ironic and more than a little amusing how things had worked out, but he doubted the Kents would share their view on it all. 

"God, you think that's funny?!" 

Yep, thought Lex, Clark is grinning like an idiot. Damn. 

"Don't you?" Clark sounded genuinely bewildered. 

Lex to the rescue once more. "Mr Kent, I can't be upset that Clark removed his blood from Lionel's possession, nor that it was replaced with a normal sample. Whatever Lionel or Morgan Edge believe they have, it isn't Clark's blood and that's what's important to us. 

"Of course Lex, we can see that," said Martha, "but we are concerned that Clark is in danger for another reason, that his activities during the summer might yet come back to haunt him. Forgive us if we don't see the humour in that scenario." 

"There's very little chance of anyone connecting me with anything illegal," said Clark. 

"What about this man you worked for, supposing he turns on you?" 

Lex had to agree it was a fair question, Martha would have made a great lawyer if she'd ever practiced. Of course, she didn't have all the facts about Morgan Edge. 

"He's dead, he's not going to bother anyone, and none of his associates knew I was working for him. Morgan was far too keen to exploit my abilities himself to let slip even a hint of what I could do." 

Lex could see Martha desperately wanted to ask how Edge had died, but was struggling not to give voice to the question in case she didn't like the answer. Interesting. He would have bet his Trust Fund that before today, Martha wouldn't even have considered the possibility of Clark killing anyone. He didn't want to leave that fear to fester however, so he put her mind at rest. 

"Edge double-crossed Lionel in some way," he said. "We don't know the details, just that there was a shooting down by the docks and Edge was killed." 

Martha looked relieved, and then contrite. Lex assumed it had occurred to her that although Clark was innocent of the death of Edge, Lionel had to have been involved to some degree. 

"It's alright Mrs Kent, I resigned myself a long time ago to the fact that my Father is somewhat ruthless when he's threatened." 

"And I suppose you want us to believe that you're not ruthless?" Jonathan scoffed. 

"Oh no, far from it," he smiled. "The difference is though that my Father is ruthless when _he's_ threatened, whereas I am ruthless when _Clark_ is threatened." 

(Continues in Chapter 7) 


End file.
